Reading the Chunksters - Guidelines for Group Membership

[Loretta]

Please read this entire thread to determine guidelines for participation in Reading the Chunksters. These guidelines are provided exclusively to make group participation run smoothly, and to allow us all the freedom to enjoy what we all came here to do--read chunksters.

1) "Chunkster" Defined. A chunkster is at least 500 pages long. There is some wiggle room provided for in this definition (e.g. if the Penguin edition is 480 pages and the Oxford edition is 520 pages).

2) Two Group Reads at a Time. The group will have one "Classic" Chunkster and one "Contemporary" Chunkster running at all times (allowing for short breaks in between books to accommodate members' schedules as much as possible).

3) "Classic" Defined. There will be no hard and fast rule for what defines "Classic" and what defines "Contemporary." We will trust in our members to engage in reasonable discussions to determine if a book qualifies as a classic. As a group, we prefer not to use a specific year as a cut-off, as there are a number of other GR groups that use such methods, and therefore it is likely that our group will read some books written in the 20th century as our "Classic" selection.

4) Nominations. When it is time for nominations, one of the moderators will post a thread and send a general announcement out to the group, encouraging members to nominate books. Each member may only nominate one book per thread. The thread will remain open for approximately a week. When nominating, please link to your book and author to cut down on any confusion for the moderators.

5) Discussion Leaders. In most cases, one of the group moderators will lead the discussions for our Chunkster reads. However, the moderators reserve the right to have the person who nominated the thread lead the discussions, or a volunteer from among those who voted for the book. If no discussion leader can be found, the second most popular book will be read instead.

6) Voting. Voting will occur after the close of nominations, in a transparent poll that will be open for approximately one week.

7) Discussion Thread Layout. The main Chunkster reads (our "Classic" and "Contemporary" reads) will each receive their own folder. The discussion leader will be responsible for opening a new thread every week.

8) Side Reads. Any group member is welcome to lead a Side read. To nominate a Side Read you should:

a. mention the book in the Side Reads discussion forum,
b. offer to lead the discussion
c. group together to read the book.
d. let a Moderator know that you have a group
e. submit an outline of schedule to said moderator (see opening posts of previous side reads for ideas)
f. Moderator will set up a thread for your side read and you may begin on your start date.

Side reads will be discussed in one thread (rather than a thread for every week). To avoid confusion and spoilers, all people posting in the thread should begin each post in the thread with a mention of which chapter you've just finished.

9) Active Participation. Active participation is required. Any member of the group who has been a member for at least 3 months and who has never posted in the discussion threads, or only posted once or twice, will be removed. You are welcome to rejoin the group at any time. However, we prefer that only active members be able to nominate and vote on our group books.